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2. social science
3. linguistics
4. translation

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MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY EDUCATION OF
UZBEKISTAN
KARAKALPAK STATE UNIVERSITY
CHAIR OF EN GLISH PHILOLOGY
LECTURES on “Lexicology”
Complided by
Senior teacher of English
Philology Chair
G.Tleumeratov
NUKUS – 2007
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LECTURE 1
LEXICOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Problems for debating.
1. The Object of Lexicology.
2. Types of Lexicology.
3. The connection of Lexicology with other language aspects.
4. The relationships existing between words.
5. Subdivisions of Lexicology.
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which studies the vocabulary of a
language. Its basic task is to study the origin, the different properties of the
vocabulary of a language. In other words, lexicology is concerned with words and
set phrases which function in speech. Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic
relations (synonyms, antonyms etc) and semantic grouping (semantic fields).
Etymologically the word “lexicology” is a Greek word: “Lexic” means “word” and
“logos”-learning.
There are 5 types of lexicology: 1) general; 2) special; 3) descriptive;
4)historical; 5) comparative.
General lexicology is a part of general linguistics which studies the general
properties of words, the specific features of words of any particular language. It
studies the pecularities of words common to all the languages. General lexicology
attemptas to find out the universals of vocabulary development and
patterns.Linguistic pheenomena and properties common to all languages are
generally called language universals.
Special lexicology deals with the words of a definite language.
Descripitive lexicology studies the words at a synchronic aspect. It is
concerned with the vocabulary of a language as they exist at the present time.
Historical or diachronic lexicology deals with the development of the
vocabulary and the changes it has undergone. Ex. In dsecriptive lexicology the
words “ to take “ ,“to adopt “ are considered as being English not differing from
such native words as “ child ”,” foot “,” stone “ etc.But in historical lexicology they
are treated as borrowed words.
Comparative lexicology deals with the properties of the vocabulary of two
or more languages. In comparative lexicology the main characteristic features of the
words of two or more languages are compared. Ex .Russian-English lexicology,
English- Friench lexicology and etc.
Lexicology is closely connected with other aspects of the language:
grammar, phonetics,the history of the language and stylistics.
Lexicology is connected with grammar because the word seldom occurs in
isolation. Words alone do not form communication. It is only when words are
connected and joined by the grammar rules of a language communication becomes
possible. On the other hand grammatical form and function of the word affect its
lexical meaning.For example.Whenthe verb “go” in the continuous tenses is
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followed by “to” and an infinitive,it expresses a future action.Ex.He is not going to
read this book.Participle 11 of the verb “go”following the link verb “be”denotes the
negative meaning. Ex.The house is gone.
So the lexical meanings of the words are grammatically conditioned.
Lexicology is linked with phonetics because the order and the arrangement of
phonemes are related to its meaning. Ex.the words “tip”and “pit” consist of the
same phonemes and it is the arrangement of phonemes alone which determines the
meaning of the words.The arrangement of phonemes in the words “increase”is the
same.Only stress determines the difference in meaning.
Lexicology is also closely linked with the history of the language.In
examinig the word “information”in terms of its historical development we establish
its French origin and study the changes in its semantic and morphological
structures.If we don‘t know the history of the language it will be very difficult to
establish different changes in the meaning and form of the words which have
undergone in the course of the historical development of the language.
There is also a close relationship between lexicology and stylistics. The
words “to begin” and ”to commence” mean one and the same meaning but they can
never be used interchangeable because they have different stylistic references.
The relationship existing between words may be either syntagmatic or
paradigmatic. The syntagmatic relationship is found in the context. The context is
the minimum stretch of speech which is necessary to bring out the meaning of a
word.Ex.take tea (чой ичмок-питъ чай),take tram (трамвайда юрмок-ехатъ на
трамвае).
The paradigmatic relationship is the relations between words within the vocabulary:
polysemy,synonyny,antonymy,of words etc. There are two approaches to the study
of the vocabulary of a language-diachronic and synchronic.
Synchronic approach deals wich the vocabulary as it exists at a given time,at
the present time. The diachronic approach studies the changes and the development
of vocabulary in the course of time
Ex.Synchronically the words “help” ,”accept”, work”, ”produce”are all of
them English words. But diachronically they came from different languages. Such
words as “childhood”,”kingdom”,”friendship”,”freedom” were at one time
compound words because the suffixes-dom,-hood,-ship were independent words but
synchronically they are derived words because “dom” and “hood”became suffixes.
Lexicology has some subdivisions such as:
1) Semasiology (deals with the meaning of the word);
2) Wordformation (studies all possible ways of the formation of new words
in English);
3) Etymology (studies the origin of words);
4) Phraseology(studies the set-expressions,phraseological units);
5) Lexicography (studies compiling dictionaries).
Comprative study of different pecularities of English words with words of
other languages shows that there are various symptoms of this contrast between
English and other langusges.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
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1. I.V.Arnorld. The English Word. M,1986.
2. R.S.Ginzburg et.al. A course in Modern English
Lexicology. M,1979.
3. S.S.Hidekel et al .Readings in Modern English
Lexicology .L,1975.
4. J.Buranov,A.Muminov. A practical course in English
Lexicology. Tashkent,1990.
5. А.И.Смирницкий. Лексикология английского
М,1956.
6. Дж. Буранов.Сравнителъная типология английского и тюркских
языков. М, 1983.
LECTURE 2
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The structure of the word .
Problems for discussion.
1. The morphemic structure of the word.
2. The difference between the morpheme, the phoneme and the word.
3. The morphemic analisis of the word with the help of I.C. method.
4. Types of morphemes.
5. The stem and its types.
6. Synchronic and diachronic approaches to the analysis of the stem of the word.
Most of the words have a composite nature and they are made up
morphemes is the smallest indivisable, two-faced language unit. Morphemes might
be divided into phonemes. But if we divide morphemes into phonemes, phonemes
unlike
morphemes have no meaning. (ex.t/ea/ch/er-teacher). Phonemes are used to make
up morphemes. So the difference between morphemes is that morphemes have
meaning but phonemes have not. A morpheme differs from a word too. Unlike a
word a morpheme does not occur separately in speech. It occurs in speech as a
constituent part of a word.
How do we anslyse the composite nature of words? The method by which
the segmentation of words into morphemes is carred out is known as I.C. analysis
(the immediate constituents method) Let’s analyse the word “denationalize” with
the help of I.C. method.
de/nation/al/ize
When we analyse the word we compare the word with other words which
have the same morphemes. The word “denationalize” may be divided into “de” and
“nationalize”, because “de” can be found in the structure of such words as
“deform”,”denature”,”denominate”. The remaining part “nationalize”can be broken
into “national” and “ize”: the reason is the same (organize,homanize,standardize
etc). “National”-into “nation” and “al” because “al” occurs in a number of words
such as: (occupational, musical, conditional etc). At each stage of the process we
receive two ultimate constituents. The part of the word “denationalize”de,-nation,alize-, are ultimate constituents because they can not be divided further. They are
morphemes. This analvsis of word structure is known as the morphemic analysis.
Morphemes are divided into two:free and bound. Free morpheme is a
morpheme which is identical with the wordform. In our example only “nation” can
be said as a free morpheme, as it is like a wordform and can be used in
isolation, de-,-al,-ize, are bound morphemes because they can’t be used seprately
and do not coincide with wordforms.
According to the number of morphemes words are divided into
monomorphemic and polymorphemic. Monomorphemic words consist of one rootmorpheme. Ex. boy, girl, dog, cat.Polymorphemic words consist of more than two
morphemes. Ex. teach/er, un/reason/able. Morphemes are arranged in the word
according to certain rules. The relations with in the word and the interrelations
between different types and classes of words are called derivational relations. The
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basic unit at the derivational level is the stem. The stem is a part of the word which
remains unchanged throughout its paradigm. In the word foems “talk, talks, talked,
talking” we can receive the stem “talk”. The stem which comes in the paradigm
boy, boys, boy’s, boys’ is boy. In “teacher”, “teacher’s”, “teachers”, “teachers” the
stem is “teacher”.
There are three structural types of stems: simple, derived and compound. A
simple stem is a part of the word which is identical wich a root morpheme and to
which the grammatical elements are added. Ex. book, tram, teach, table, girl, boy.
A derived stem is cush a stem which can be divided into a root and an affix: girlish,
agreement, acceptable, teacher. But derived stems are not always polymorphimic.
Ex. The stem of the verb “to fish” though it has no affix in its structure it should be
considered to be a derived stem as it is felt by the native speaker as more complex
and semantically dependant on the simple stem of the noun ‘‘fish”. Compound
stems are stems which consist of two or more stems Ex. match-box, paint-box,
bookcade, doorhandle etc.
We must differ two approaches to the analysis of wordstructure: diachronic
and synchronic. Words like “kingdom”, “childhoo”“, “friendship” are called words
which have a derived stem because in modern English the elements “dom”, “hood”,
“ship” are suffixes. However they consisted of two root morphemes in Old English
and they were compound words Synchronically the word “ lord” has a simle stem
but diachronically it had a compound stem (O.E. hlafweard). The verbs
“disappoint”, “return”, “remark” and other have no derived stems but simple stems
in Modern English these words are not divided into re-turn, dis-appoint etc because
there are no semantic relations between “disappoint” (разочаровыватъся) and
“appoint” ,“return” and “turn” etc.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I.V.Arnold. The English Word. M.1986.pp.77-104.
2. R.S. Ginzburg et al . A course in Modern English lexicology. M,1979. pp.89-106.
3. А.И.Смипницкий. Лексикология английского языка.М,1956, глава 111.
4. J. Buranove, A. Muminov. A practical course in English Lexicology. Tashkent,
1990 .pp.19-21.
5. И.П.Иванова и др. Теоретическая грамматика современного языка. М,1981
стр.4-8.
6. Е.С.Кутбрякова. Основы морфологмческого анализа.М, 1974.
LECTURE 3.
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WORDFORMATION, AFFIXATION.
THE PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. The Subject matter of wordformation.
2. Diachronic and synchronic study of wordformation.
3. Types of wordformation.
4. Ways of wordformation.
5. Affixation and its subdivision.
6. The difference between suffixes.
7. The origin of affixes.
8. Homonymic and synonymic affixes.
9. The polysemy of affixes.
Wordformation is the creation of new words from the elements existing in the
language. aevery language has its own structural patterns of wordformation. Words
like “writer”, “worker” , “teacher”, “manager” and many others follow the
structural pattern of wordformation “V+er”. Wordformation may be studied
synchronically and diachronically. Synchronically we study those of wordformation
which characerize the present-day English linguistic system, while diachronically
we investigate the history of wordformation. The synchronic type of wordformation
does not always coincide with the historical system of wordformation.
Ex. the words childhood, kingdom were compound words: hood> OE had (state,
rank), dom>OE dom condemn. But synchonically they are considered as derived
words because “-dom”, “-hood” became. The words “return”and “turn” historically
had semantic relations and “return” was considered as a word derived from “turn” .
But synchronically these words have no semantic relations and we can’t say that
“return” is derived from “turn”.
Synchronically the most important and the most productive ways of
wordformation are: affixation, conversion, wordcomposition. Beside them there are
other types of wordformation such as: shortening, soundinterchange, blending,
backformation. In the course of the historical development of a language yhe
productivity of this or that way of wordformation changes.
Ex. soundinterchange (blood-bleed, strike-stroke) was a productive way of
wordformation in old English and it is an important subject-matter for a diachronic
study of the English language. Soundinterchange has lost its productivity in Modern
English and no new words can be formed by means of soundinterchange. Affixation
on the contrary was productive in Old English and is still one of the most productive
ways of wordformation in Modern English.
Two types of wordformation may be distinguished: wordderivation and wordcomposition. Words formed by word-derivation have only one stem and or more
derivational affixes (ex. kindness from kind). Some derived words have no affixes
because derivation is achieved though conversion (ex. to paper from paper). Words
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formed by wordcomposition have two or more stems (ex. bookcase, note-book).
Besides there are words created by derivation and composition. Such words are
called derivational compounds (ex. long-legged).
So the subject of study of wordformation is to study the patterns on which the
English language builds words.
The English and Karakalpak languages differ in the types of wordformation.
Their ways of wordformation are also
different. Affixation, composition,
shortening are very productive ways of wordformation in both languages. In
Karakalpak conversion, blending, soundinterchange (stressinterchange),
backformation are less common type of wordformation. As for as the English
language concerned these types of wordformation are very common. We can find a
few words which formed by these types of wordformation in the Karakalpak
language.
Affixation is the formation of words with the help of derivational affixes. Affixation
is subdivided into prefixation and suffixation. Ex. if a prefix “dis” is added to the
stem”like” (dislike) or suffix “ful” to”law” (lawful) we say a word is built by an
affixation. Derivational morphemes added before the stem of a word are called
prefixes(Ex. un+like) and the deivational morphemes added after the stem of the
word are called suffixes(hand+ful). Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the stem
meaning i.e. the prefixed derivative mostly belongs to the same part of speech. Ex.
like (v.)-dislike (v.). kind .(adj.)-unkind (adj.) but suffixes transfer words to a
different part of speech, ex. teach(v.)-teacher (n.). But new investigations into the
problem of prefixation in English showed interesting results. It appears that the
traditional opinion, current among linguists that prefixes modify only the lexical
meaning of words without changing the part of speech is not quite correct. In
English there are about 25 prefixes which can transfer words to a different part of
speech. Ex.-head (n)-behead (v), bus(n)-debus(v), brown (adj.)-embrown(v),
title(n)-entitle(v), large(adj.).-enlarge (v), camp(n).-encamp(v), war(n).-prewar(adj).
If it is so we can say that there is no functional difference between suffixes and
prefixes. Besides there are linguists who treat prefixes as a part of word composition. They think that a prefix has the same function as the first component
of a compound of a word. Other linguists consider prefixes as derivational affixes
which differ essentially from root - morphemes and stems. From the point of view
of their origin affixes may be native and borrowed. The suffixes -ness, -ish, dom,ful, -less, -ship and prefixes be-, mis-, un-, fore-, etc are of native origin. But the
affixes -able, -ment, -ation, -ism, -ist, re-, anti-, dis-, etc are of borrowed origin.
They came the Greek, Latin and French languages. Many of the suffixes and
prefixes of native origin were independent words. In the course of time they have
lost their independence and turned into derivational affixes. Ex. -dom,-hood. / O. E.
had-state / the adjective forming suffix “-ly” has developed from the noun “lic”
(body, shape). The prefixes out-, under-, over etc also have developed out of
independent words.
Another problems of the study of affixes is homonymic affixes. Homonymic
affixes are affixes which have the same sounfrom, spelling but different meanings
and they are added to different parts of speech.
Ex.-ful (1) forms adjectives from a noun: love (v)-lovefui (adj/, man (n),
manful (adj).
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-ful (2) forms adjective from a verb: forget (v.)-for-getful, (adj)thank (v.)thankful (adj).
-ly (1) added to an adjective stem is homonymous to the adjective forming
suffix -ly (2) which is added to a noun stem. Ex. quicly, slowly,and lovely, friendly.
The verb suffix -en (1) added to a noun and adjective stem is homonymous to
the adjective forming suffix -en (2)
which is added to a noun stem. Ex to strengthen, to soften, and wooden, golden. The
prefix un-(!) added to a noun and a verb stem is homonymous to the prefix un-(2)
which is added to an adjective stem. Ex. unshoe, unbind, unfair, untrue.
In the course of the history of English as a result of borrowings there appeared
many synonymous affixes in the language. Ex. the suffixes -er,-or,-ist,-ent,-ant,eer,-ian,-man,-ee,-ess from synonymous affixes denoting the meaning “agent”.
Having the meaning of negation the prefixes un-,in-, non-, dis-, mis- from
synonymic group of prefixes. It is interesting to point out that the synonymous
affixes help us to reveal different lexico-semantic groupings of words. Ex.. the
words formed by the suffixes -man, -er,-or, -ian,-ee, -eer, -ent, -ant etc. belong to
the lexico-semantic groupings of words denoting “doer of the action”. The affixes
may also undergo semantic changes, they may be polisemantic. Ex. the noun
forming suffix “-er” has the following meanings:
1) persons following some special trade and profession (driver, teacher,
hunter); 2) persons doing a certain action at the moment in question (packer,
chooser, giver); 3) tools (blotter, atomizer, boiler, transmitter).
The adjective forming suffix “-y” also has several meanings:
1) composed of, full of (bony, stony)
2) characterized by (rainy, cloudy)
3) having the character of resembling what the stem denotes (inky, bushy etc.).
Thus, affixes have different characteristic features.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English word. M, 1986. pp.83-100.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979
pp.108-114.
3. H. Marchand. The Categories and Types of Present Day English Word Formation. Wiesbsden, 1960.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A Practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 26-40.
5. О. Д. Мешков. Словообразование современного английского языка. М,
“Наука”, 1976.
6. П. М. Каращук. Словообразование английского языка. М, 1977.
7. Е. С . Кубрякова. Что такое словообразование? М, 1965.
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LECTURE 4.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF AFFIXES
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Dead and living affixes.
2. Productive and the freguency of affixes.
3. Productivity and the freguency of affixes.
4. Classification of affixes according to their structure.
5. Classification of affixes according to their meaning.
6. The devision of affixes according to what part of speech they from.
7. The stylistic reference of affixes.
There are different classification of affixes in linguistic literature. Affixes
may be divided into dead and living. Dead affixes are those which are no longer felt
in Modern English as component parts of words. They can be singled out only by an
etymological analysis. Ex. admit (from L ad+mittere); deed, seed, seed (-d) flight,
bright (-t).
Living affixes are easily singled out from a word. Ex. freedom, childhood,
marriage.
Living affixes are traditionally in their turn divided into productive and nonproductive. Productive affixes are those which are characterized by their ability to
make new words. Ex. -er (baker, lander-косм.корабль (космик кеме);-ist(leftistлевый (шеп т1ðåï) -ism, -ish (baldish) -ing, -ness, -ation, -er, -ry, -or, -ance, -ic
are productive suffixes -re-, unnon-, anti- etc are productive prefixes.
Non -productive affixes are those which are not used to from new words in
Modern English. Ex. -ard, -cy, -ive, -en, -dom, -ship, -ful, -en, -ify etc.are not
productive suffixes; in(il) ir (im-), mis-dis-, are non-productive prefixes. These
affixes may occur in a great number of words but if they are not used to from new
words in Modern English they are not productive.
But recent investigations prove that there are no productive and non-productive
affixes because each affix plays a certain role in wordformation. There are only
affixes with different degrees of productivity, besides that productivity of affixes
should not be mixed up with their frequency of occurence in speech. Frequency of
affixes is characterised by the occurence of an affix in a great number of words.
But productivity is the ability of a given suffix or prefix to make new words. An
affix may be frequent but not productive, ex. the suffix “ive” is very frequent but
non-productive.
Some linguists1 distinguish between two types of prefixes:
1) those which are like functional words (such as prepositions or adverbs)
(ex .out-, over-, up-.)
2) those which are not correlated with any independent words. (ex. un-, dis-,
re-, mis-, etc).
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Prefixes out-, over-, up-, under-, etc are considered as semibound
morphemes. However, this view is doubtful because these prefixes are quite
friquent in speech and like other derivational affixes have a generalized meaning.
They have no grammatical meaning like the independent words. We think they are
bound morphemes and should be regarded as homonyms of the corresponding
independent words, ex. the prefix “out-” in outdoor, outcome, outbreak etc is
homonymous to the preposition “out” in “out of door” and the adverb “out” in “He
went out”.
Prefix and suffixes may be classified according to their meaning.
1) prefixes of negative meaning such as: de-, non-, un-, in-, ir-, im-, dis- (ex.
defeat, decentralize, disappear, impossible, discomfort etc); 2) prefixes. denoting
space and time relations: after-, under-for-, pre-, post-, over-, super-(ex. prehistory,
postposition, superstructure, overspread, afternoon, forefather); 3) prefixes denoting
relation of an action such as: re- (ex. reread, remake).
Like prefixes the fuffixes are also classified according to their meaning:
1) the agent suffixes: -er, -or, -ist, -ee etc. (baker, sailor, typist, empliyee); 2)
appurtenance: -an, ian, -ese ( Arabian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese); 3) collectivity:
-age, -dom, -hood, -ery
(peasantry, marriage, kingdom, childhood); 4)
diminutiveness: let, -ock, -ie etc (birdie, cloudlet, hillock); 5) quantitativeness1: ful, -ous, -y, -ive, -ly, -some.
Suffixes may be divided into different groups according to what part of
speech they form:
1) noun-forming, i. e. those which are form nouns: -er, -dom, -ness, -ation, ity, -age, -ance/. -ence, -ance, -ist, - hood, -ship, -ment etc; 2) adjective-forming: able/. -ible/. -uble, -al, -ian, -ese, -ate, -ed, -ful, -ive, -ous, -y etc; 3) numeralforming: -teen, -th, -ty etc; 4) verb-forming: ate, -en, -ify, -ize etc; 5) adverbforming: -ly, -ward, -wise etc.
Suffixes may be added to the stem of different parts of speech. According to
this point of view they may be;
1) those added to verbs;-er, -ing, -ment, -able; 2) those added to nouns; less, -ish, -ful, ist, some etc; 3) those added to adjectives; -en, -ly, -ish, -ness etc.
Suffixes are also classified according to their stylistic reference; 1) suffixes,
which characterize neutral stylistic reference : -able, -er, -ing (ex. dancer,
understandable (helping); 2) suffixes which characterize a certain stylistic reference:
-oid, -form, -tron etc (astroid, rhomboid, cruciform, cyclotron etc).
CONVERSION
ROBPLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Different points of view to the study of conversion.
2. The study of conversion on the diachronic level.
3. The study of conversion on the synchronic level.
4. The most common types of conversion.
5. The connection of derived and underlying word in converted pairs.
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Conversion is a very productive way of forming new words, chiefly verbs
and not so offen-nouns. This type of word formation presents one of the
characteristic features of Modern English. By conversion we mean derivation of a
new word from the stem of a different part of speech without the addition of any
formatives. As a result the two words are homonymous, having the same
morphological structure and belonging to different parts of speech.
Verbs may be derived from the stem of almost any part of speech, but the
commonest is the derivation from noun stems as: (a) tube- (to) tube; (a) doctor- (to)
doctor; (a)face- (to) face; (a) waltz- (to) waltz; (a) star -(to) star; from compound
noun stems as: (a) buttonhole - (to) buttonhole; week-end - (to) week-end.
Derivations from the stems of other parts of speech are less common: wrong - (to)
wrong; up - (to) up; down - (to) down; encore - (to) encore. Nouns are usually
derived from verb stems and may be instanced by such nouns as: (to) make - a
make; (to) cut - (a) cut; to bite - (a) bite, (to) drive - (a) drive; to smoke - (a) smoke;
(to) walk - (a) walk. Such formations frequently make part of verb - noun
combinations as: to take a walk, to have a smoke , to have a drink, to take a drive, to
take a bite, to give a smile and others.
Nouns may be also derived from verb-postpositive phrases. Such formation
are very common in Modern English,
as for instance: (to) make up - (a) make-up; (to) call up - (a)call-up; (to)
pull over- (a) pullover.
New formations by conversion from simple or root stems are quite usual,
derivatives from suffixes stems are rare. No verbal derivation from prefixed stems is
found.
The derived word and the deriving word are connected semantically. The
semantic relations between the derived and the deriving word are varied and
sometimes complicated. To mention only some of them: a) the verb signifies the act
accomplished by or by means of the thing denoted by the noun, as; to finger means
‘totouch with the finger, turn about in fingers’; to hand means ‘to give or help with
the hand, to deliver, transfer by hand’; b) the verb may have the meaning ‘to act as
the person denoted by the noun does’,as: to dog means ‘to follow closely’, to cook ‘to prepare food for the table, to do the work of a cook’; c) the derived verbs may
have the meaning ‘to go by ‘ or ‘to travel by the thing denoted by the noun’, as, to
train means ‘to go by train’, to bus - ‘to go by bus’, to tube - ‘to travel by tube’; d)
‘to spend,pass the time denoted by the noun’, as, to winter ‘to pass the winter’, to
weekend - ‘to spend the week-end’.
Derived nouns denote: a) the act, as a knock, a hiss, a smoke; or b) the result
of an action, as a cut, a find, a call, a sip, a run.
A characteristic feature of Modern English is the growing frequency of new
formations by conversion, especially among the verbs.
RECOMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp.153-163.
13
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979
.pp.108-114.
3. H. Marchand. The Categories and Types of Present Day English WordFormation. Wiesbaden, 1960.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 47-53.
5. О. Мешков. Словообразование современного английского языка. М,
“Наука”, 1976 стр.
6. П. М. Каращук . Словообразование английского языка. М, 1977.
7. Е. С. Кубрякова. Что такое словообразование? М, 1965.
8. П. М. Каращук. Аффиксальное словообразование в английском
языке. М, 1965.
9. А. И. Смирницкий. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1956.
LECTURE 5
WORDCOMPOSITION.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Compound words and their meanings.
2. The motivation of compounds.
3. The classification of compound words.
4. The types of relations of components in compound words.
5. The difference between the compound words and word groups.
6. Synchronic and diachronic approaches to the study of compounds.
Modern English is very rich in compound words. Compound words are
made up by joining two or more stems.
Ex. taxi-driver, paint-box, bookcase.
A compound word has a single semantic structure. We distinguish the
mesning of the compound words from the combined lexical meanings of its
components. Ex. “pencil-case” is a case for pencils. The meaning of the compound
words is derived not only from the combined lexical meanings of its components
but also from the order and arrangement of the stems. A change in the order of
components of compound words brings a change in their lexical meaning.
Ex. life-boat- a boat of special construction for saving lives. boat-life- life on
board of a ship.
a fruit-market-market where fruit is sold, market-fruit-fruit for selling.
Compound words are classified into completely motivated, partially
motivated and non-motivated compound words. In completely motivated compound
words the lexical meaning of compound is easily deduced from the lexical
meanings of the stems.
Ex. book-case, foot-step, door-handle, bottle-opener.
14
The compond words a flower-bed, walk-up are partially motivated
compounds because we can guess their meaning partially. The compounds in which
the connection between the meaning and structure and the meanings of components
of compounds can not be seen from the meaning of its components are called nonmotivated compound words.
Ex. wall-flower -a woman who renains at wall and is not invited to a dance.
Night-cap -drink taken before going to bed at night.
Compond words may be classified from the functional point of view or
according to their belonging to different parts of speech.
Many of English compounds belong to nouns and adjectives. N- armchair,
sitting-room, looking-glass, blackboard, picpocket (a thief), bench-mark,
homework, grammar-school.
ADJ- social-economic, hard-working, man-made,well-behaved, well-read,
dry-drink, V- whitewash, housekeep, etc.
ADV- indoors, within, outside.
From the point of view how the components are joined together the
compound words may be classified into: compounds whose components are joined
with a linking element. (afro-asion, angio-saxon, sportsman, speedometer,
handicraft, statesman, landsman) and without a linking element (snowball, raincoat, door-handle, reading-room, paint-box, door-step).
Compound words are also classified according to different ways of
compounding. In this case we divide them into two groups:
1) compound words proper. Such kind of compounds are formed by joining
together stems of words and these compounds have no derivational affix. The
components of such compounds are simple stems.
Ex. door-step, looking-glass, table-cloth, whitewash, book-case, bookshelf.
2) derivational compound. These compounds have a derivationa affix: longlegged, kind-hearted, schoolboyishness, blue-eyed, absentminded.
There are two types of relationship in linguistic literature: that of
coordination and subordination and accordingly compound words may be classified
into coordinative and subordinative. In coordinative compounds the components are
structurally and semantically independent ( ex. reduplicative: goody-goody, fiftyfifty).
In sudordinative compounds the components are besad on the domination of
one component over the other.
Ex.road-building, baby-sitter, woman-doctor.
Subordinative compounds may be syntactic which depends on syntactic
rules. Ex.mad-doctor, bluebell, a slow-coach ( adj+ n) and asyntactic. Ex.red-hot,
oil-rich, long-legged( adj+adj) there is no syntactic rule and it does not depend on
the syntactic rules.
Compound words differ from word-groups, they are inseparable vocabulary
units. Compound words structurally, phonetically and graphically are inseparable.
Structurally compounds are inseparable because if we changethe places of
components of compounds we see change of meaning in compounds or they will
not be compounds.
Ex. boat-life -life on ship, life-boat - a boat which is used for saving. If we
change the places of components of compound word long-legged in this way
15
“legged long” it will be not a compound word. So the inseparability in structure of
compounds can be seen in their specific order and arrangement of stems.
The compounds are phonetically inseparable as the components of them
have only one stress. Mostly the first
component is stressed. Ex. pen-knife, book-case, doorway, bookshelf. There are
some compouns which have a double stress. In this case we have the primary stress
on the first component and a weaker secondary stress on the second component.
Ex. ‘mad-’ doctor, ‘washing -’ machine, ‘money -’ order etc. These stress
patterns in many cases may be used as a criteria of distinguishing compound words
from free word groups. As we know both components of free word groups are
always stressed.
Ex. a’ green-house, a’green ‘house (word group)- a house that is painted
green, ‘dancing-girl-a dancer, dancing ‘girl -a girl who is dancing. Graphically
copounds have two types of spelling-they are written either together or with a
hyphen.
This is also one of the criteria of distinguishing of compounds from
wordgroups. Some linguists1 advocate the semantic criterion. They define a
compound word as a combination of words expressing a single idea. This point of
view causes some doubt. Because it does not give us sufficient ground to
distinguish between the cases of compound words and idiomatic set phrases.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I .V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp.108-133.
2. R .S . Ginzburg. etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. S. S. Hidekel etal. Reading in Modern English Lexicology. L,
1975.pp.86-145.
4. J. Buranov, A Muminov. A practical course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990.pp.54-60.
5. О. Д. Мешков. Словообразование современного английского языка.
М, 1976.
6. А. И. Смирницкий. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1956.
7. Т. И. Арбекова. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1977.
16
LECTURE 6
SEMASIOLOGY.
THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Semasiology and its subject matter.
2. The definition of the tern “ meaning of the word”.
3. Referential and functional approaches to the study of meaning.
4. Types of meanings.
5. Motivation and its different types.
Semasiology is concerned with the meaning of words, studies the types of
meaning the change of meaning, the semantic structure of words, semantic
groupings, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms etc. There is no generally accepted
definition of the term “meaning of the word”.F. de Saussure, a well-known Swiss
linguist, says that the meaning is the relation between the object or nation named
and the name itself.
L. Bloomfield, a well-known American linguist, points out that the meaning
is the situation in which the word is uttered. The siyuations prompt people to utter
speech.
Ex. if we want to know the meaning of the word “apple” we must make a
situation for it.
Our Soviet linguists say that the meaning is the realization of the notion by
means of a definite language system (by a linguistic sing).
So the term “meaning” is a subject of discussion among the linguists. There
are two main approaches to the study of the meaning of a word.
1) referential approach, 2) functional approach.
The referential approach treats the meaning of a word as a relation between
the object (the referent), notion and its name (the word)
concpect
sound form
referent (object)
ex. dove.
As can be seen from the diagram the sound form of the word (ex. “dove” )
is connected with our concept of the bird which it denotes and through it with the
referent. Treating the meaning of a word by the referential approach is not quite
clear. This point of view can hardly be accepted because meaning is not idential
with the referent, there are words which do not denote a referent, ex. angel [eind3il]
Becides one and the same referent may be denoted by different words.
17
The functional approach treats the meaning as the relation of one word to
another. By this approach the meaning
can be studied only through context, through its relation to other words. Ex. to take
the tram (a taxi), to take off, to take care of, to take ill, to take a degree, to take cold,
to take it easy, to take it easy, to take on, to take place, to take tea, to take a bath, to
take five minutes, to take notice, to take part in, to take a book, etc.
to make
a table
a teacher
smb do
to look
out
up
up one’s mind
forward
at
after
for
through
pale
like.
There are two main types of meaning:
1) the grammatical meaning, 2. the lexical meaning.
The grammatical meaning is the formal meaning of a word. It is defined as
the meaning belonging to the lexico-grammatical classes and grammatical
categories. It is expressed by the word’s form. Every word belongs to a definite part
of speech and every part of speech has a certain grammatical categories. Ex. verbs
have tense, voice, mood, person etc. Nouns have the categories of case, number etc.
Ex. the words “asked”, “thought”, “talked”, “took, ran” have the grammatical
meaning of tense. The grammatical meaning unites words into big groups such as
parts of speech.
The lexical meaning is the material meaning of a word. This is a meaning
which gives the concept of a word. By the lexical meaning the word expresses the
basic properies of the thing the word denotes.
The lexical meaning of a word falls into two:
1) the denotational meaning, 2) the connotational meaning.
Denotational meaning makes communication possible because words denote
things, concepts, they name them. Ex. the denotational meaning of the word “table”
is a piece of furniture consisting of a flat top with four supports (called legs). The
connotational meaning is a meaning which has a stylistic shade. It serves to express
all sorts of emotions, expressiveness. Connotation may be shortly defined as
emotional and evaluative component of the lexical meaning, Comparing the
meanings of English words “well-known”, “famous”, “notorious” we see that all
these words express the denotational meaning “widely known”. But the word
“famous” has a positive evaluative meaning and “notorious has a negative
evaluation. So, the words “well-known”, “famous”, “notorious” differ in their
emotional colouring and evaluation.
Connotational meaning consists of such constituents as: emotion, evaluation
and internsity (intensifying connotation). The word takes the emotional connotation
in contexts corresponding to emotional situations. The denotational meaning is
associated with emotions (ex. He besought a favour of the judge: Here the word
“beseech” means “to ask eagerly and also anxiously”).
18
Evaluative cannotation denotes approval or disapproval relations to the thing
or phenomena, Ex. colt a young male horse used for a young unexperieenced
person; pup- a young dog used for a person. These words have negative evaluation.
But in English we have words which have positive evaluation (ex. bunny кролик(3îÿí),bunting-лапочка (жаным).
Intensifying conntational is the reinforcement of the sing: it indicates the
special importance of the thing expressed. Ex. awfully glad, terribly important.
The connotational meaning may be expressed also either in the emotive
charge or in stylistic reference.
Ex. “aunt” and “auntie”. These words have the same denotational meaning
but the word “aunt” has no emotive charge but “auntie” has it. The Karakalpak
“3ûç” has no emotive charge, but “3ûçøà” has.
Stylistically words can be subdivided into literary, neutral and colloquial
layers. Neutral words are words of general use. Ex. the words “to begin” (баслау,
начинать) and “to commence”(баслау, начинать) “dad” and “ father” have the
same denotational meanings but “to begin” and “father” are stylistically neutral
words, whereas “dad” is a colloquial word and “ to commence” stylistically is a
literary word. In Karakalpak “1êå” is a neutral word but “à2à”,“àæà2à”are
colloquial.
Besides the lexical and grammatical meanings we can observe differential,
functional and distributional meanings of a word. Differential meaning is the
semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from other in words
containing the same (dentical) morphemes.
Ex. “note-book”. The morpheme “note” serves to distinguish the word from
other words: exercise-book, copy-book or: bookshelf, bookcase. The functional
meaning may be seen in derivational morphemes. If we see the words with the
suffixes -ment, -er, -ity, -or, we say that they are nouns.
Eg. establishment, plurality, teacher, translator, sailor.
If -ful, -less, -able, -al etc. are present in words we say adjectives. Ex.
helpful, handless, guiltless, readable, national, writable, operational, openable,
proposal.
The distributional meaning is found in all words having more than one
morpheme. It is found in the arrangement and order of morphemes making up the
word.
Ex. “teacher” but not*erteach.
“boyisness” but not *nessboyish.
Different types of the lexical meaning of one and the same word are
considered its lexico-semantic variants. Lexico-semantic variants in their
correlations and interconnection form the semantic structure of the word. In the
semantic structure of the word there is a special information on the members and
the conditions of communication. The intercourse and personal contacts in real
situations may reveal the pragmatic aspect of the lexical meaning of the word.
Ex. “Hallo” is used in unofficial situations giving a signal at the same time
to the friendly relations of the members of the communication.
19
The meaning of a word may be realized by its structure. A direct connection
between the structural pattern of the word and its meaning is called the motivation
of a word.
Motivation may be morphological, phonetical and semantic.
The relationship between morphemic structure and meaning is called
morphological motivation. From this point of view the words may be motivated and
non-motivated. Ex. sing, tell, eat, open, read, go are non-motivated words because
each of them have simple stem and morpheme. If we can see a direct connection
between the structural pattern of the word and its meaning we say that this word is
motivated.
So in most cases the derived and compound words are motivated and
simple words are non-motivated. Ex. eatable, readable, reader, doll-faced, singer are
motivated but eat, read doll, sing are non-motivated: ring, finger are non-motivated
but finger-ring is motivated. The words may be partially motivated. Ex. “cranberry”
is partially motivated because the morpheme “cran” has no meaning.
If we see the connection between the phonetic structure of a word and its
meaning we say that the word is phonetically motivated. Ex. cuckoo, boom, cock-a
doodle-doo, bow-wow, mew-mew, etc.
When the meaning of a word is metaphorically extended or when a word is
used as a metaphorically extention of the central meaning we say the word is
semantically motivated.
Ex. “He is my mother”. Here “mother” is used metaphorically, the whole
sentence means that “ he looks after me like my mother”. So the word “ mother” is
semantically motivated. “He is a fox”. (“He is cunny”), fox is semantically
motivated.
We must differ two approaches to the study of motivation; 1) Diachronic, 2)
synchronic.
Ex. the word “essex”, “norfolk”, “sutton” were non-motivated in old
English. But “East-Saxon”, “North+Folk”, “South Town” in Modern English are
motivated. If we compare the motivation of words in different languages it may
differ considerably.
Ex. long-haired-длинноволосый, узын шашлы -motivated in 3 languages.
But “overcoat”-is motivated in English, “пальто”-non-motivated, “curtain”-nonmotivated, “занавес”-motivated, “перде” -non-motivated.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp. 37-50.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etel. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. S. S. Hidekel etal . Reading in Modern English Lexicology. L, 1975. pp.
26-34.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A practical course in English Lexicology .
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 65-73.
5.Э. М. Медникова. Значения слова и методы его описания. М, 1974.
стр. 43-58.
6. А. И. Смирницкий. Значение слова. ВЯ. №2, 1955.
7. О. Д. Мешков. Семантические аспекты словосложения английского
языка. М, 1986. стр. 76-100.
20
LECTURE 7.
CHANGE OF MEANING OF WORDS.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION
1. The causes of semantic change.
2. Metaphor and metonymy.
3. A metaphor and a simile.
4. The extention and the restriction of meaning of words.
5. The deterioration and amilioration of meaning of words.
The meaning of a word is a changable category. The causes of semantic changes
may be either linguistic or extra -linguistic. Extra-linguistic causes are different
changes in the life of the people speaking the language, the coming into existence of
new notions and objects, changes in economic and social life, changes of ideas and
etc.
Ex. the word “mill” originally meant ручная мельница.
The development of industry gave use to the meaning “mill” предприятие,
завод. Ex. a cooton mill, a steel mill. The word “atom” meant indivisible substance.
Now the scientists discovered that atom can be divided and this change our concept
of atomic indivisibility. A change in the meaning may be brought about by different
linguistic developments in the lexical system as a whole.
The word may change its meaning by the shortening of a word group. Ex.
The old meaning of the verb “to starve” was “to die” and it was often used in the
word group “to starve of hanger”. The modern meaning of the verb “to starve” is
the result of the shortening of the word group, “to starve of hanger”.
The meaning of the word “weekly” a newspaper published weekly is the
shortened form of the word group “weekly newspaper”, “a musical” is the
shortened form of the word group “ a musical comedy” etc.
The appearance of a new word which is synonymous to the word already
existing in the language may cause a change in the meaning of words. Ex. the old
meaning of the word “deer” was an animal. It was usder for all kinds of animals.
When the Latin word “animal” came into the English language the meaning of the
word “deer” was changed. Now it is used to name only one kind of animal (deerолень, буга). The words may change their meaning when they are used
transferently, i. e. metaphorically or metonymically. A metaphor is a shift of
meanings caused by the likeness (semilarity of some property of two object).
Metaphor is based on the semilarities of objects.
Ex. the words “warm” and “cold” may be used to denote the certain qualities
of human voices because of some kind of similarity between these qualities and
warm and cold temperature.
Ex. warm voice
warm temperature
cold voice
cold temperature.
21
The similarity may be based on several shapes.
1) similarity of form. Ex. eye of a needle, a head of a pin; 2) similarity of
function. Ex. the head of the state, the head of the demonstation; 3) similarity of
position. Ex. the foot of the mountain, a foot of the page, the top of the table, the leg
of the table.
The usage of proper names for common nouns may cause a metaphor too.
Some scientists use widely some characters. Ex. He is a pushkin of our days (he is a
very strong poet).
She is a tursunov (she is a very good cotton picker). Sometimes the names
of animals are used to denote the human qualities.
Ex. She is a fox (she is very cunny). She is a parrot (She is talkative).
We must differ a metaphor from a simile. In simile we use before the words
“as” and “like”. Ex. She is a monkey(metaphor). She is like a monkey (similar).
Metonymy is a shift of meaning or a change caused by a close, stable,
constant connection between two or more objects. Metonomy should not be mixed
up with a metaphor. In metonymy a part is used instead of the whole but metaphor
is based on the likeness. Ex. She has a fox on ( metonomy). It means she wears furcoat made out of the fur of a fox. “Black shirt” was given for fascists in Italy
because the fascists wore black shirts, “red-coat” means British soldiers because
they wore red uniforms. The kittle is boiling(water is boiling). Sometimes names of
human organs may be used metonymically.
Ex. Will you lend me your ear? (listen to me). He has a good hand. (He has
a good handwriting.)
The name of a person can be used to denote a thing connected with that
person. Ex. Do you know Byron? We mean his poems not himself. Ex. I like
Pushkin means I like his works. Geographical names are also used metonymically.
Ex. boston-a name of town- materials. Champaine - a province in France.
The result of semantic change can be observed in: 1) restriction (or
narrowing) of meaning. Restriction of meaning is the capacity of a word to narrow
its meaning in the course of historical development; 2) extention (or widening) of
meaning. It is the expantion of polymemy in the course of its historical
development, i. e. it is the widening of meaning. Ex. The word “fowl” meant in old
English “any bird” but in modern English it denotes “ a domestic hen or cock,- old
meaning of “affiction” was -any feeling, new meaning is a felling of love. The word
“juke” originally meant sailor’s word meaning “old rope”. Now it means “rubbish
useless stuff”. This is an example of extention of meaning. The word “meat”
originally meant “food” now it means one special type of food. This is an example
of narrowing of meaning. As a result of change of meaning o word may get a new
meaning which will be broader or more generalized than the
old one. Ex. season. The old meaning of the word “season” was “spring”. The new
meaning is any part of the year. Here is another example. The old meaning of “to
bootleg” was to sell alcocholic drinks illegally” New meaning is “ to sell anothing
illegally”.
The meaning of a word may become ameliorated as a result of semantic
change. Ex. the old meaning of the word “nice” was “foolish”, now it means
“good”, “fine”.
22
The old meaning of “marshal” was a servant who looked after horses. New
meaning is a high military rank (маршал).
The meaning of a word may become deteriorated as a result of semantic
change. Ex. the old meaning of “villain” was “farm labourer”, new meaning is
злодей, негодяй (жарамас).The old meaning of “knive” was - мальчик, бала, new
meaning is “мошейник” (алдаушы).
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M. 1986. pp. 60-76.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. I. R. Galperin. Stilistics. M, 1971.pp.55-62.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent,1990 . pp. 74-78.
5.Э.М. Медникова. Значение слова и методы его описания. М,1974.
6. А. И. Смирницкий. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1956.
7. Э. С. Азнаурова. Очерки по стилистике слова. Ташкент, 1973.
LECTURE 8.
POLYSEMY.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Polysemantic and monosemantic words.
2. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to the study of polysemy.
3. Context, its types and its role in determination of different meanings of
words.
4. Frequency value and stylistic reference of different meanings of words.
5. The comparative study of different meanings of polysemantic words in
different languages.
Polysemy is the existence within one word of several connected meanings.
These meanings appeared as a result of the development and change of its original
meaning. Words are divided into two: polysemantic and monosemantic words.
Polysemantic words are words which have more than two meanings. Monosemantic
words have only one meaning.Ex. The word “man” has eleven meanings in modern
English.
1) человек (адам), 2) адвокат (адвокат), 3) мужчина (еркек), 4)
мужественный человек (3îð3ïàñ àäàì),5) человечство (адамгершилик), 6)
слуга (хызметкер), 7) рабочий (жумысшы), 8) муж (ери), 9) рядовые матросы
(тенизшилер), 10) вассал (вассвл), 11) пешка пияда (шахматта).
23
The word “room” has 3 meanings:
1) комната (хана), 2) место (жай), 3) возможность (3îëàéëû3).
1. картина, рисунок (ñ67ðåò)
2. копия, портрет (нус3à)
3. представление ( ì1ëèìàò)
4. живописная поза ( ðå4 , ñûìáàò)
5. картинка (ñóëû7 ñ67ðåò) picture
6. кино (кино)
7. киноматография (киноматография)
8. амер , дело, сущность (асас)
9. картина крови (3àí ñ67ðåòè)
Ex. She is the picture of her mother, to form a clear picture of smith, living
pictures in the air.
Monosemantic words are mostly scientific terms: hydrogen, lasar, etc.
Polysemy may be analised from two ways: diachronically and synchronically. If
polysemy is analised diachronically it is understood as the development of the
semantic structure of the word or we establish how the meaning of the word has
changed whether it has got new meanings in the course of the development of the
language. From the historical point of view one of the meanings of the word will be
primary meaning; that is such a meaning of a word which was first registered. All
other meanings are secondary meanings. The term secondary meaning shows that
the meaning appeared in the language after the primary meaning was already
established.
Ex. the primary meaning of the word “fox” is лиса, лисица (ò6ëêè
óð2àøûñû) but such meanings of this word as лисий мех (ò6ëêè æ6íè),
ïåðâîêóðñíèê (áèðèøè êóðñ ñòóäåíòè) are secondary meanings. Here are
other examples: eye the primary meaning is “ãëàç” (ê5ç), secondary is взгляд
(í1çåð), глазок в двери (åñèêòåãè ê5ðåòó2ûí òåñèê), óøêî èãîëêè (èéíå
ê5çè), ïåòåëüêè (ñ1äåï òà2ûëàòó2ûí òåñèê); “father” - the primary meaning
is отец (ата), secondary is старейший член (жасы улкен a2за) родоначальник
(317èì áàñëû2û), духовный отец (диний адам) etc.”fish” - the primary
meaning is рыба (балык), secondary is нахал, наглец (сурбет).
Synchronically polysemy is understood as the coexistence of various
meanings of the word at a certain historical period of the development of English.
Synchronically the main problem of polysemy is to establish whether all the
meanings of a word are equally important. We divide the meanings of a word into
two: the major (or basic) meaning of a word and the minor meaning. In most cases
the surrounding context points out quite clearly which of the meanings of a word is
intended.
Ex. 1. It is a fox. Here “it” shows that the word “fox” is used in the meaning
“лиса” (ò6ëêè).
24
2. He is a fox. The presence of “he” shows that “fox” is in the meaning of
“хитрый” (айяр).
3. She will fox him. We find the meaning from the position of “fox”. It
stands after the auxiliary verb “will” and the direct object “him”. Here it is used in
the meaning of обманывать (алдау).
The meaning which is not dependent on context is the major (or basic)
meaning of the word and the meanings which are dependent on the context are
minor meanings. By context we mean the minimal stretch of speech determining
each individual meaning of the word. Ex. “to make” means “to produce smth”. This
is its basic meaning but other meanings are minor meanings because they can be
found only in a context.
The meaning of a word may be determined either by its lexical or by its
grammatical context.
Ex. the verb “to take” in such lexical distributions as: take+tea (coffee,
medicine) -its meaning is пить (ишиу); take+care -заботиться (2àìõîðëû3
åòè7); take+of - раздеваться (шешиниу) ; to take + tram, the metro, a bus- сесть
на ......(трамвайга, автобуска отырыу); The meaning “больной” of the adjective
“ill” is brought out only by a syntactical pattern in which “ill” is used as a
predicative (ex.the man is ill) while the syntactical pattern in which the word “ill”
is used as an attribute, brings out the meaning- плохой (жаман) вредний an ill man
- плохой человек (жаман адам).
The comparative study of the frequency value of different meanings of
polysemantic words shows that the frequency value of individual meanings is
different. Ex. the meaning of the word “table”- стол (a piece of furniture) possesses
the highest frequency value and comprises 52 % of all uses of this word. The
meanings of polysemantic words have different stylistic references. Ex. “jerk” in the
meaning of “sudden movement” belongs to a neutral style but in the meaning of “an
odd person” it is a slang (mostly expressive and ironical words). Stylistically neutral
meanings are very frequent. In any historical period as a result of semantic
development the secondary meaning of the word may become the central (major
meaning of the word). Ex. revolution M. E. 1360-1460 meant “the revolving motion
of celestial bodies”, the meaning “революция” was the secondary, minor meaning.
Now the meaning “революция” is the major meaning.
The semantic structure of a word is the system and unity of all the types of
meaning that a certain word possesses. The semantic structure has the national
character.
The semantic structure of correlated words of two different languages can
never cover each other. The major meaning is in most cases identical in two
languages but others usually differ. The meaning “male child” can be found both in
the English word “boy” and in its Karakalpak equivalent “бала” but the meaning
“servant” can’t be found in the Karakalpak word “бала”.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp. 50-56.
25
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. S. S. Hidekel etal. Reading in Modern English Lexicology . L. 1975. pp.
35-42.
4. J. Buranov. A Muminov. A Practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 79-86.
5. Э. М. Медникова. Значения слова и методы его описания. М, 1974.
6. Д. Н. Шмелев. Проблемы семантического анализа лексики. М, 1973.
LECTURE 9
HOMONYMS.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION
1. The definition of homonyms. 2. The classification of homonyms. 3. The
sources of homonyms. 4. Polysemy and homonymy. 5. The wordformational
activity of homonymic pairs.
Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meanig
are called homonyms.
Ex. ball1-бал (ракс тури), ball2-мяч (топ)
toast1- поджаривать хлеб (íàíäû ìàéäà 3ó7ûðû7)
toast2- провозглашать тост (îòûðûñïà3ëàðäà ñ5éëå7)
rose1- роза (роза)
Rose2- имя девушки (3ûçäû4 àòû)
sound1- звук (сес)
sound2- пролив (3óéûëû7)
bark1-лай собаки (ийттин 6ðè7è)
bark2- плывущий корабль (æ6çèï æ6ðãåí êåìå).
Homonyms must be studied diachronically and synchronically.
Diachronically we study the origin of homonyms, yhe sources of homonyms, the
time of their appearance in the language. Synchronically we analyse the present
pecularities of homonyms, their classification etc.
Homonyms are classified into: 1) homonyms proper; 2) homophones; 3)
homographs.
Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling and
different in meaning.
Ex. fast1 -quickly, fast2- to do smth. quickly.
back1- назад (êåéèíãå)
back2- спина (àð3à)
spring1- пружина (ïðóæèíà)
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spring2-весна (á181ð)
spring3- родник (áóëà3)
Homophones are words of the same sound form but of different spelling and
meaning.
Ex. air- воздух (8à7à)
him -hymn
heir - наследник (ìèéðàñ3îð)
knight -night
pail- ведро (øåëåê)
piece- peace
pale- бледный (à2àð2àí)
write- right
son- сын (áàëà)
sun- солнце (3óÿø)
see- sea
read- reed
pray- prey.
Homographes are words which are different in sound and in meaning but
identical in spelling.
Ex. lead [li:d]
lead [ led]
tear [tε1 ]
tear [ ti1 ]
wind [ wind ]
wind [waind ]
bow [bou ]
bow [bau ].
Prof. Smirnitsky has suggerted his classification of homonyms based on the
lexico-grammatical principle.
He distinguished the following types of homonyms:
1) lexical homonyms are those words which belong to one part of speech but
they differ only in their lexical meaning.
Ex. seal n -a sea animal
seal n - a design printed on paper, stamp.
hairn- haren , balln - balln
2) lexico-grammatical homonyms are those words which differ in their
lexical and grammatical meanings.
Ex. sea to see seal n - a sea animal to seal v - to close tightly, work n - to
work v, well adv - well n-колодец (3óäû3). There may be cases when lexicogrammatical homonyms are observed within the same part of speech.
Ex. The words “found” (past tence of “to find”) and “found (present tense of
‘to found”) differ both grammatically and lexically.
3) grammatical homonymy is the homonymy of the different wordforms of
one and the same word (part of speech).
Ex. boys - boy’s, asked,- past tense asked, p.
There are some of homonyms. They are:
1) divergent meanigs development of one polysemantic word. Different meanigs of
the same word move so far away from each other ( differ from each other ) and they
become two different word Ex. spring1-пружина, spring2-родник, spring3-весна,
can be etymologically traced back to the same source, “flower” and “flour” which
originally were one word ( M . E . flour ). The meaning was “ the flower” and “ the
finest part of wheat”, now they are different words.
27
2) many homonyms came as a result of converging sound development. Ex.
OE ic and OE aℑe have become identical in pronunciation. I pron and eye ( n ),
love (ν) - love n (OE lufu-lufian)
3) many homonyms arose from conversion, they have related meanings. Ex.
paper- to paper, support- to support.
Some linguists think that converted pairs must not be included in
homonyms. This question demands further investigation.
4) The formation of different grammatical forms may cause homonyms:
girl’s-girls.
5) borrowed words may become homonyms as a result of phonetic
convergence.
Ex. Scandinavian “ ras” and French rase are homonymous in English:
rase-состязание, rase- рейс
case1-падеж, case2-чемодан, case3-случай
Homonomy and polysemy are different categories. In polysemy we deal
with the different meanings of the same word. In homonomy we have different
words which have their own meanings. The problem of difference between
polysemy and homonymy is a subject of discussion among the linguists.
Some scientists say that the substitution of different meanings of words by
the synonyms may help to differ homonyms from polysemantic words.
Ex. voice1-sounds uttered in speaking ( sound )
voice2- mode of uttering sounds in speaking (sound )
voice3-the vibration of the vocal cords in sounds uttered (sound )
voice4 -the form of the verb that express the relation of the subject to the
action.
voice1-voice2-voice3- are not homonyms although they have different
meaning becouse they can by substituted by the synonym “ sound “. As far as
“voice4” is concerned it is a homonym because it can’t be substituted by the word
“sound”. V . Abeyev gave etymological criterion. He says homonyms are words
which have different sources and only coincided phonetically.
Ex. rase1( O. N. ras), ( F. rase). I( O, E. ic) -eye(O, E.eaзe)
So this question demands further investigation.
In Modern English homonyms are spread. Homonymic relation can be
found not only in words but also: 1) between morphemes, ex. It’s raining. Flattering
won’t help. Fill your glasses. All is well that ends well: 2) between words and
morphemes. Ex. He couldn’t get over the shock. The watch is shockproof; 3)
between words and word-combinations. Ex. Don’t run away. The runaway was
caught; 4) between words and sentences. Ex. I don’t care. He took and I don’t care
attitude.
Homonyms differ in their wordformational activity.
Ex. “affect1”-has 8 derivatives whereas, “affect2” has 3;
affect
affect
affective
affected
affection
affecting
affected
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affectedly
affectation
affection
affectedness
affectational
affectionally.
The interdependence and interrelations of different peculiarities of homonymic pairs
demand further investigation.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp.182-193.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etel. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. A. U. Buranov, A. Muminov. A Practical Course in English lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp.87-94.
4. А. И. Смирницкий. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1956.
5. М. И. Фомина. Современний русский язык. Лексикология. М, 1983.
6. И. С. Тышлер. Словарь лексических и лексико-грамматических
омонимов современного английского языка. Изд-во Саратовского
Университета. 1975.
LECTURE 10.
LEXICOGRAPHY.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. English dictionaries and their development.
2. Types of dictionaries.
3. The selection of lexical units in dictionaries.
4. The entry of dictionaries.
5. The sructure of English dictionaries.
Lexicography is a science of dictionary-compiling. Modern English
lexicography appeared in the 15 th century. In this period English-Latin dictionaries
were in existence. The first dictionary of the English language was published in
1755 by Sumuel Johnson, in which he gave the origin of words and example from
the works of the best writers.
Another major milestone is the New English Dictionary of Oxford English
Dictionary. It was written from 1888 up to 1928. It covers the vocabulary of English
with a full historical evidence. It gives the full history of words. It has 13 volumes
and a supplement containing neologisms (new words).
29
The first important dictionary in American lexicography is Webster’s American
Dictionary of the English language. It was published in 1828 in two volumes.
Lexicography depends on its development in the solution of some general problems
of lexicology. So, lexicography is closely connected with the problems of
lexicology. The compilers approach to lexicological problems differently. For
example, there is no clear border-line between homonymy and polysemy in
different dictionaries. Thus in some dictionaries words such as fly-пешше (муха),
(a two winged insect) and fly - ñ1äåï óøûí ìàòåðèàë (материал для пуговиц),
(a flap of cloth covering the buttons on a garment) are treated as two different words
and in others (Ex. the Concise Oxford Dictionary and the Advanced Learners
Dictionary of Current English)- as different meanings of one and the same word.
There are encyclopeadic and linguistic dictionaries. An Encyclopeadic
dictionary gives the information of extralinguistic world. It gives the information
about the important events, animals, and all branches of knowledge. They deal not
with words, but with facts and concepts.
There are two main types of dictionaries: general dictionaries and special
dictionaries. General dictionaries are divided into explanatory dictionaries and
parallel or translation dictionaries (bilingual and multilingual).
The best known explanatory dictionaries are: “ The Shorter Oxford
Dictionary” in two volumes, based on the NED, the COD (one volume). Chamber’s
20 th Century Dictionary (one volume), WNID, New Comprehensive Standard
Dictionary, the New Random House Dictionary, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
etc.
Most of these dictionaries present the spelling, usage, pronounciation and
meaning
of
words
grammatical
information,
origan
of
words,
derivatives,phraseology, etymology, synonyms and antonyms. Pronounciation is
shown either by means of the International phonetic transcription or in British
phonetic notation which is somewhat different in each of the larger reference book.
Ex. [ :] is given as oh, aw, o, or, etc.
Translation dictionaries or parallel are word-books containing vocabulary
items in one language and their equivalents in another language.
Ex. Russian- English Dictionary under the edition of prof. A. I. Smirnitsky.
The English - Russian dictionary by Muller, New English-Russian Dictionary by I.
R. Galperin. The Pocket English-Russian Dictionary, by Бенюк, Чернюк. English Uzbek dictionary by J. Buranov and K. R. Rahmanberdiev, English-Karakalpak
Dictionary, Karakalpak-English Dictionary by J. Buranov, P. Kurbanazarov etc.
The translation dictionaries are based on the comparative study of the
languages. Among the general dictionaries we find Learner’s Dictionary which is
compiled for foreign language learners at different stage of advancement.
Ex. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by Hornby,
Gatenby, Wakefield: It is a one-language (monolingual) dictionary compiled on the
basis of COD. It differs from other dictionaries because it gives the information
about the lexical or grammatical valency of words.
The Learner’s English-Russian Dictionary by Folomkina,Weiser contains
approximately 3.500 words.
30
Specialized dictionaries gives us the information of one or two particular
pecularities of words (ex. synonyms, collocability, frequency, etymology,
pronounciation, phraseological units.
The best known dictionary of synonyms is Dictionary of English Synonyms
Expressions by Soule and Webster’s Dictionary of synonyms.
The best and most comprehensive collection of English phraseology is A.
V.
Koonin’s English phraseological Dictionary (in two volumes). Yhe Oxford
Dictionary of English Proverbs, Collin’s Book of English Idioms.
There are other types of specialized dictionaries. Dictionaries of
collocations. A Reum’s Dictionary of English Style, Dictionaries of word
Frequency (Dictionary of frequency Value of Combinability of words. Moscow
1976). The Teacher’s Book of 30.000 words by E. S. Thorndike and Lorge. Michail
West. A. General Service List of English Words. Etymological dictionaries; Ex. W.
Skeat’s Etymological
Dictionary of the English Language. Pronouncing
dictionaries: English Pronouncing Dictionary by D. Jones etc.
The most important problems the Lexicographer comes across in compilling
dicionaries are the selection of words, the selection, arrangement and defintion of
meanings, and the illustrative examples to be supplied.
Dictionaries can’t possibly register all occasional words. It is impossible to
present all occouring technical terms because they are too numerous (ex. there are
more than 400.000 chemical terminology in English). Therefore selection in made
according to the aim of the dictionary.
The choice of correct equivalents depends on the type of the dictionary, and
on the aim of the compilers.
Different types of dictionaries differ in their aim, in the information they provide
and in their size. They differ in the structure and content of the entry. The most
complicated type of entry is found in explanatory dictionaries. The entry of an
explanatory dictionary of the synchronic type usually presents the following data:
accepted spelling, pronounciation, grammatical characteristics, the indication of the
part of speech, definition of meanings, modern currency, illustrative examples,
derivatives, phraseologycal units, etymology, synonyms, antonyms etc. The entry of
translation dictionaries presents the meanings of words with the help of other
languages.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp. 272-281.
2. S. S. Hidekel etal. Readings in Modern English Lexicology. L, 1975.
pp.193-210.
3. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A Practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 11-19.
31
4. A. S. Hornby. Oxford Student’s Dictionary of Current English. M, Oxford,
1984.
5. R. S. Ginzburg etal. Verbal Collocations in Modern English. M, 1975.
6. О. С. Ахманова и др. Русско - английский словарь. М, 1981.
7. А. В. Кунин. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. М, 1984.
8. Л. П. Ступин. Лексикография английского языка. М, 1985.
LECTURE 11.
THE VOCABULARY OF A LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Synonyms and their classification.
2. Antonyms and their classification.
3. Neologisms, archaisms and obsolete words.
4. Emotionally coloured words.
5. Semantic fields.
Words can be classified in different ways. The classification of words may
be based upon: similarity of meanings and polarity of meanings of words. The
similarity of meanings is found in synonymic groups.
Synonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech different in
morphemic composition and phonemic shap but identical or similar in meaning and
interchangeable at least in some contexts. Ex. jump, hop, leap, spring, defend,
protect, guard shield; absence, privation, lack, want; error, mistake; go, leave,
depart. Complete synonyms do not exist. Bloomfield says each linguistic form has a
constant and specific meaning.
Polysemantic words can be synonymous in all their meanings. Ex. The verb
“look” is a synonym of see, watch, observe, in the meaning of “смотреть” but in
another of its meaning it is synonymous with the verbs seem, appear (to look pale).
Each synonymic group contains one word the meaning of which has no
additional connotational (it can be used in different styles). This word is called a
synonymic dominant. Ex. In the group: change, alter, very, modify the word
“change” is the synonymic dominant.
Synonyms may be divided into:
1) ideographic synonyms; 2) stylistic synonyms.
Synonyms which differ in their denotational meanings are called ideographic
synonyms. If the difference lies in their stylistic difference the synonyms are said to
32
be stylistic. Ex. beautiful (usually about girls) and handsome (usually about men).
These are ideographic synonyms but “to die- to pass away”, “to begin - to
commence”, “to see - to behold”, “to end - to complete”, “horse - steed” are stylistic
synonyms.
neutral words
stylistically coloured words
to see
to behold (bookish)
a girl
a maiden (poetic)
money
dough (cooloquial)
food
grub (coloquial)
to live
to hand out (coloquial)
Prof. Aznaurova E. S. points out that stylistic synonyms carry emotional
evaluative information.
Synonyms are distributionally different words. Ex. “too”, “also” “as well”
are synonyms. They always occur in different surroundings. The synonyms differ in
their coolocability. Ex. We compare the collocability of synonyms “to book” and
“to buy”.
possible
impossible
to book in advance
to buy in advance
to book somebody
to buy somebody
to book seats
to buy seats
to buy cheaply
to book cheaply
to buy from a person
to book from a person
to buy a house
to book a house
The main sourses of synonyms are:
1) borrowings: to ask - to question: (F) - to interrogate. (L) to begin (A, S) to commence (F) -to initiate (L -rise (F) - ascend (L);
2) The formation of verb+ adverb (V+adv) combinations like “have a
smoke”.
to rest - to have a rest, to swim- to have a swim, to smoke - to have a smoke;
3)shortening: vacation - vac, doctor -doc, sister -sis;
4) conversion: laughter -laugh, 5) many set expressions consisting of a verb
with a postpositive element form synonyms:ex. to choose - to pick out, to continue
to go on, to return - to bring back.
6) euphemisms, i. e. words which are used instead of unpleasant words: ex:
drunk-merry, lodger-paying guest, to die - to go away, commandment - command.
7) slang. i. e. emotionally coloured words which are the secondary names of
objects.
Ex. сокрушатель, - crusher (полицейский ), тюрма - can (дословно
консервная банка), убить- to bump off - (дословно пристукнуть), казнить - to
fry - (дословно зажарить), голова - bean (дословно боб) или mug ( дословно
кружка).
Antonyms are words which belong to the same part of speech and have
contrary meanings. Ex. kind - cruel, good - bad, big - small, little - much.
Antonyms may be divided into: 1) root antonyms: ex. good - bad, beautiful ugly, kind - cruel, old - young.
2) derivational antonyms. These antonyms are formed by affixes. Ex. kind unkind, to like - dislike, possible - impossible, regular, irregular. Antonyms are not
33
always interchangeable in certain contexts. Ex. “rich voice” can not be changed into
“poor voice”. The opposite of a short person is a tall person. A short thing - long
thing an old book - a new book, an old man - a young man, a thin man - a fat man, a
thin book - a thick book.
Antonyms may be found among qualitative adjectives as: good - bad, deep shallow, nouns as: light - darkness; verb as “to give” and “to take”; adverbs as
quickly - slowly, early - late.
Many antonyms are explained by means of the negative particle “not”. Ex.
clean - not dirty, shallow onot deep. Antonyms form pairs, not groups like
synonyms: bad - good, big - little, alike - different, old - new.
Polysemantic words may have antonyms in some of their meanings and
none in the others. Ex. when the word “criticism means “blame” its antonym is
“praise”, when it means “рецензия” it has no antonym.
The majority of linguists nowdays agree that the vocabulary should be
studied as a system. We must study interrelated systems. For different purposes of
study different types of grouping of words may be effective.
Words joined together by one common semantic component form semantic
fields. Ex. the semantic field of time.
The German linguist Jost Trier shows that the significace of each unit in the
semantic field is determined by its neighbours. A. Shaikevitch says that
semantically related words must occur near one another in the text. If the words
often occur in the text together they must be semantically related and they form a
semantic field.
Ex. faint, feeble weary sick, tedious and healthy form one semantic field.
Face, head, arm, hand, foot etc make up the semantic field with the notion of
body.
Neologism is any word which is formed according to the productive
structural patterns or borrowed from another
language and felt by the speakers as something new. So neologisms are newly
coined words or phrase or a new meaning for an existing word or a word borrowed
from another language. As a result of the development of science and industry
many new words are appeared in the language. Ex. isotope, tape-recoder,
supermarket, V-day (Victory day). The research of cosmic space by the Soviet
people gave birth to new words: sputnik, space-rocket, space-ship.
Neologisms may be divided into:
1) root words: Ex. jeep - a small light motor vehicle, zebra - street crossing
place, sputnik, lunic etc;
2) derived words: Ex. collaborationist - one who in occupied territory works
helpfully with the enemy, to accessorize - to provide with dress accessories;
3) compound: Ex. space - rocket, air - drop, microfilmreader. New words are
as a rule monosemantic. Terms, used in various fields of science and technique
make the greater part of neologisms. New words belong only to the notional parts of
speech: to nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.
Neologisms are mainly formed by: 1) wordformation (mainly productive
type).
Ex. -gen, -ogen: carinogen (bilogical term),-ics: psycholinguistics,
electronics, sputnik - to sputnik (conversion),
-nik: filmnik, folknik.
34
2) semantic extension: heel - a tractor (old meaning: heel - the back part of
foot); to screen - to classify, to select methodically (old meaning was - to separate
coal into different sizes);
3) borrowing: telecast, (Greek), sputnik, lunnik, udarnik (Russian).
Words may drop out as a result of the disappearance of the actual objects
they denote. These words are called obsolete words.
The disappearance of words may be caused as a result of influence of
borrowings.Ex. the scandinavian “take” and “die” ousted O. E. niman and sweldan.
The French “army” and “plaxe” replaced the O. E. here and steps. Words
which are not used generally are called archaisms. Archaisms are used in poetic
vocabulary.
Ex. Steed (horse), slay (kill), welkin (sky).
Archaisms should be distinguished from historical terms or historisms which
denote historical reality and commonly used in modern English.
Ex. cannon - ball, chain mail, lance, archer, baldric (belt for a sword).
Speech also expresses the speakers attitude to what he is talking about. The
speaker may wish to warn, to influence people, to express his approval or
disapproval. Words expressing emotion are called emotionally coloured words.
Deminutive and derogatory affixes play an important role in forming emotionally
coloured words.
Ex. daddy, kiddykins, babykins, oldie, blackie.
In Karakalpak: àòàæàí, ñè4ëèì,3ûçûì,áîòàëà3.
Interjections also express emotion without naming them:
Ah!, Hush!, Hell!, Nonsense!, Pooh;
In Karakalpak: 7àé, àéíàíàéûí ýõ.
The derogatory suffixes may form emotionally coloured words.
Ex. bastard - внебрачный eakling -слабое существо
ребенок
hibster- хиппи
drunkard -пьяница,
dullard - тупица
In Karakalpak àéíàëàéûí, 3àðà2ûì, øûðà2ûì.
It is very interesting that many personal nouns formed by the composition
from complete sentences or phrases in most cases are derogatory:
Ex. also - run - ну и скакун, непосредственность
never- say- die - несдающиеся, неприклонный
stick -in - the mud -отсталый человек, растяпа
die- hard -крайний консерватор, живучий.
There are nouns formed by conversion which are used emotionally coloured:
a bare - скучный человек
a washout - пропавший человек.
There are some words which indicate the special importance of the thing
expressed. They are called intensifiers.
Ex. even, ever, all, so, awfully, tremendously, wonderfully, terribly.
awfully glad, terribly important...
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The Karakalpak words: 7àé-7àé, äàò, à8, 68 are used as the intensifiers.
It should be pointed out that among the emotionally coloured words we can
find words which express evaluation, judgement. They are called evaluation words.
Mostly names of animals have a strong evaluatory force.
Ex. “Silly ass” said Dick. “He’s jealous because he didn’t win a priz”.
cattwitted - мелочный, dirty dog - грязный подлец, colt - a young male
horse used for a young unexperienced person, pup - щенок. They have negative
evaluation. But in English we have words which have positive evaluation, ex. bunny
- кролик (ласк), bunting - птичка (ласк). The English language we can find a lot of
vulgar words which are used in emotional speech: ex. Damn! Alas!
One and same word may have different evaluation when it is uzed with
words denoting different sex.
He is a bull (it has a positive evaluation)
She is a bull (it has a negative evaluation)
In Karakalpak: “êåëáåò” has positive evaluation but “òóð3û” has negative;
On different occasion and situations the speaker uses different words,
choose different words in different spheres of communication. There are some
words which are used in lecture, in a poem or when speaking to a child, an official
person etc. They are very highly frequent words. These words are called stylistically
neutral words. Ex. evening, man, table, horse, read, write, speak, beautiful, nice etc.
But we have a lot of words which cannot be used in any situation or we
speak to any person. They are called stylistically marked words.
Ex. the English nouns “horse”, “steed”, “gee-gee” have the same meaning,
they all refer to the same animal but they are stylistically different.
“ Horse” is stylistically neutral and may be used in any situation. “Steed”
belongs to poetic vocabulary. It has a lofty meaning. “Gee-gee” - is a nursery word
neutral in a child’s speech. And it is not used in adult conversation. So stylistically
coloured words are suitable only on certain definite occassions in specific
conditions of communication.
Each stylistically coloured word has a neutral synonym:
Ex. steed - horse, ire - anger, sustain - suffer, obtain - get, accomodation room, woe - sorrow, fair - beautiful, slay - kill.
Among the stylistically - coloured words we can find:
Slang - words. They are expressive, mostly ironical words. They serve to
create fresh names for some things. They sound somewhat vulgar, harsh,
mockingly, contemptously.
Ex. The word “money” has the following slang words as: beans, brass, dibs,
dough, chink, oof, wads.
The slang synonyms for word “head” are: attic, brain - pan, hat, peg, nut,
upper storey. The slang synonyms for the adjective “drunk” are: boozy, cock-eyed,
high, soaked, tight.
THE ENGLISH WORD - STOCK.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
36
1. Etymologycal survey of the English word-stock.
2. The discussion of the role of words in the language.
3. The native words and their properties.
4. Borrowed words and their properties.
5. Linguistic and extra-linguistic factors to the borrowing of words.
Etymologycally the vocabulary of the English language consists of two
groups- the native words and the borrowed words.
The etymological linguistic analysis showed that the borrowed stock of words is
larger than the native stock of words. In fact native words comprise only 30% of
the total number of words in the English vocabulary. A native word is a word
which beiongs to the original English stock, which belongs to Anglo-Saxon origin.
To the native words we include words from Common Germanic language and from
Indo-European stock. Borrowed words are words taken over from other languages.
Many linguists consider foreign influence plays the most important role in the
history of the English language. But the grammar and phonetic system are very
stable (unchangeable) and are not often influenced by other languages.Besides when
we speak about the role of native and borrowed words in the English language we
must not take into consideration only the number of them but their semantic,
stylistic character, their wordbuilding ability, frequency value, collocability
(valency) and the productivity of their wordbuilding patterns. If we approach to the
study of the role of native borrowed words from this point of view we see, though
the native words are not numerous they play an important role in the English
language. They have high frequency value, great word-forming power, wide
collocability, many meanings and they are stylistically neutral. Almost all words of
native origin belong to very important semantic groups. They include most of the
auxiliary and model verbs: shall, will, should, must, can, may; pronouns: I, he, my,
your, his, who, whose; prepositions: in, out, on, under, for, of; numerals: one two
three, four, five, six, etc; conjunctions: and, but, till, as etc; words denoting parts of
body: head, hand, arm, back, foot, eye etc; members of a family: father, mother,
brother, son, wife; natural phenomena and planets: snow, rain, wind, sun, moon,
animals: horse, cow, sheep, cat; common actions: do, make, go, come, hear, see, eat,
speak, talk etc. All these words are very frequent words, we use them every day in
our speech. Many words of native origin possess large clusters of derived and
compound words in the present-day language.
Ex. help - helper, helpful, helpfully, helpfulness, helping, helpingly,
helpable, helpably, helped, unhelpable etc.
Such affixes of native origin as er, -ness, -ish, -ed, un, -mis, -dom, -hood, ly, -over, -out, -under, - are of native origin.
We see that the role of native words in the language is great. Many authors
use native words more than foreign ones. Thus Shekespear used 90% native words
and 10% foreign words. Swift used 75% native words.
Borrowed words have been called “the milestones of philology” - said O.
Jeperson - because they permit us (show us ) to fix approximatively the dates of
linguistic changes. They show us the course of civilization and give us information
of the nations”.
The well-known linguist Shuchard said “No language is entierly pure”, that
all the languages are mixed. Borrowed words enter the language as a result of
37
influence of two main causes or factors; linguistic and extra-linguistic. Economic,
cultural, industrial, political relations of speakers of the language with other
countries refer to extra-linguistic factors. The historical development of England
also influenced the language. Due to the great influence of the Roman civilization
Latin was for a long time used in England as the language of learning and religion.
Old Norse of the Scandinavian tribes was the language of the conquerors (9- 10- 11
centruries). French (Norman dialect) was the language of the other conquerors
who brought with them a lot new notions of a higher social system, developed
fuedalizm. It was the language of upper classes, of official documents and school
(11-14cent). These factors are extra-linguistic ones.
The absence of equivalent words in the language to express new subjects or a
phenomena makes people to borrow words. Ex. the words football, volleyball,
michman in Russian; to economize the linguistic means, i.e. to use a foreign word
instead of a long native expressions and others are called linguistic causes.
The closer the two interacting languages are in structure the easier it is for
words of one language to penetrate into the other. The fact that Scandinavian
borrowings have penetrated into such grammatical classes as prepositions and
pronouns (they, them, their, both, same, till) can only be attributed to a similarity in
the structure of the two languages.
Borrowings enter the language in two ways: though oral speech (by immediate
contact between the people) and though written speech (by indirect contact though
books). Words borrowed orally (inch, mill, street, map)are usually short and they
undergo more change in the act of adopter. Written borrowings (communque, bellas
- letters naivete, psychology, pagoda etc) are often rather long and they are
unknown to many people, speaking English.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. Thr English Word. M, 1986.p.194-250, 252-262.
2. R. S. Gizburg etal. A course in Modern English lexicology. M, 1979.
3. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A Verbal Collocations in Modern English. M, 1975.
4. S. S. Hidekel etal. Readings in Modern English lexicology. L, 1975. pp.
172-192.
5. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 95-116.
6. Э. М. Медникова. Значение слова и методы его описания. М. 1974.
7. А. А. Уфимцева. Типы словесных знаков. М, 1974.
8. Н. Н. Амосова. Этимологические основы
словарного состава
современного английского языка. М, 1956.
9. А. И. Симрницский. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1956.
LECTURE 12.
PHRASEOLOGY.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
38
1. The subject- matter of phraseology.
2. The classification of phraseological units.
3. The point of view about stability, idiomaticity and the equevalency of
phraseological units to words.
4. The history of phroseological units.
5. The synonymy, polysemy of phraseological units.
Functionally and semantically inseparable units are usually called phraseological
units. Phraseological units cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as
ready made units. The lexical components in phraseological units are stable and
they are non-motivated i.e. its meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of its
components and they do not allow their lexical components to be changed or
substituted. In phraseological units the individual components do not seem to
possess any lexical meaning outside the word group.
Ex. red tape (bureaucratic methods), to get rid of; to take place; to lead the
dance; to take care.
A. V. Koonin thinks that phraseology must be an independent linguistic
science and not a part of lexicology.His classification of phroseological units is
based on the functions of them in speech. They are: nominating, interjectional and
communicative.
V. V. Vinogradov classified phroseological units into three groups taking
into consideration their motivation. They are:
1) phraseological fusions; they are such units which are completely non
motivated word groups; Ex. to kick the bucket to get one’s goat, show the white
feather.
In these word groups the meaning of the whole expressions is not derived
from the meaning of components.
2) phraseologycal units; the meaning of such word-groups can be perceived
through the metaphorical meaning of the whole phraseological unit or the
meaning of which may be seen as a metaphorical transference of the meaning of
the word group: ex. to show one’s teeth, to know the way the wind blows, to stand
to one’s guns, to take care of;
3) phraseological collocations: They include motivated relatively stable
word groups. They have a certain degree of
stabillity; ex. to take an interest, to fall in love, to look through one’s fingers,meet
the demand etc.
At present the term “phraseological unit” is usually used not to all set
expression but only to those which are completely or partially non-motivated.
Prof N. Amosova gives two categories of phraseological units depending on
whether just one component or both are used in phraseologically bound meaning. If
all the components have idiomatic meaning such phraseological units are called
“idioms” ex: to toe the line (to do exactly as one is told),a free lance (a person who
acts independently). If one of the components has bound specialized meaning
dependent on the second component she called “phrasemes”.
39
Ex. dutch courage (courage given by drink), to bring to book (to bring to
justice) small years (in the childhood), small beers (weak beer).
Stubility of phraseological units is seen in its disallowance of the
substitution of word groups. Ex. “to shrug one’s shoulders” does not allow to
substitute either “shrug” or “shoulder”.
Idiomaticity of phraseological units is lack of word groups. If a word droup
does not allow word by word translation it is called idiomatic word groups. Ex. to
kick the bucket (умереть) in the soup (в затруднительном положении) under a
cloud (в плохом настроении).
Prof. A. I. Smirnitsky states that a phraseological unit may be defined as
specific word groups functionning as a word-equivalent. The phraseological units
are single semantically inseparable units. They are used in one function in the
sentence and belong to one part of speech.
According to their semantic and grammatical inseparability we may classify
the phraseological units into: noun equivalents (heavy father), verb equivalents
(take place, break the news) abverb equivalents (in the long run, high and low).
Prof. A. Koonin does not support Smirnitsky’s point of view on the
equivalence of phraseological units. A. Koonin points out that the components of
phraseological units are mounted separately and therefore they can’t be used in one
function in the sentence. Ex. He gets rid of it. The problems of equivalency of
phraseological units to words demands further investigation.
Among the phraseological units there are the so-called imperative
phraseological units.
Ex. God Bless his soul! , Curse her!
Damn him!, Stay well!, Go well!,
Heaven forbid!, Lord love us! etc.
These phraseological units mostly denote the emotional and expressive state
of a person.
Proverbs, sayings and quotations exist also as ready made units with a
specialized meaning of their own which can not be deduced from the meaning of
their components. Therefore they may be included in phraseological units. Ex. East
or West home is best, a friend in need is a friend indeed. To be or not to be.
The history of many phraseologisms is an interesting record of the nation’s past, of
its way of life, customs and traditions. Many phraseological units are connected
with commerce, Ex. to talk shop, to make the best of the bargain, to have all one’s
goods in the shop window, a drug on the market (наркотик). Many phraseological
units are associated with the sea (the waves). Ex. all at sea, to nail one’s colours to
the madt, to sail under false colours. Many phraseological units were borrowed
from the Bible, Ex: the root of all evil - корень зла, любовь к деньгам. Daily bread
- хлеб насущный, средства к существованию.
There is a subject of discussion among the linguists about the state of such
combinations like “to give in”, “to make up”, to take off”, “to get up”, “to give up”
etc; what is the natuer of the second element of such combinations? The second
element of such units is not a word therefore they are not phraseological units.
Phraseological units, as we know, consist of words. The second element is not a
morpheme because it is not a part of the word, they are not adverbs because adverbs
have definite lexical meanings and are used in a certain function in the sentence.
40
But these units (get up, give up etc) have idiomatical meanings therefore. A. V.
Koonin calls such units “set phrases” which have no phraseological character. There
are synonyms among phraseological units, Ex: through thick and thin, by hook or
by crook, for love or money -во что бы не стало; pull one’s leg, to make a fool of
smb - дурачить. Some of phraseological units are polisemantic as “at large” - 1) на
свободе, 2) в открытом море, 3) без опредеренной цели, 4) не попавший цель,
5) свободный, 6) в целом, 7) вообще, 8) подобно etc.
It is the context that realizes the meaning of a phraseological unit in each
case. The usage of phraseological units in speech is a subject of research work of
many linguists1.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1986. pp. 165-180.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. S. S. Hydekel etal. Reading in Modern English Lexicology. L, 1975. pp. 5680.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A Practical Course in English Lexicology.
Tashkent, 1990. pp. 121-130.
5. А. И. Смирницкий. Лексикология английского языка. М, 1965.
6. А. В. Кунин. Фразеология современного английского языка. М, 1972.
7. А. В. Кунин. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. М,
1986.
8. А. В. Кунин. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. М, 1984.
LECTURE 13.
METHODS OF LEXICOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. Contrastive analisysis of words.
2. Componential analysis of words.
3. Immediate Constituents analysis of words.
4. Distributional analysis of words.
5. Transformational analysis of words.
In Modern English different methods are used in lexicological research:
1) Contrastive analysis; 2) Statistical methods of analysis; 3) Immediate
constituents analysis; 4) Distributional analysis; 5) Transformational analysis; 6)
Componential analysis etc.
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS.
41
Contrastive analysis is used to reveal the features of sameness and
differences in the lexical meaning and the semantic structure of correlated words in
both related and nonrelated languages.
We must know that the objective reality exists outside human being, every
language classifies reality in its own way by means of its vocabulary units.
In English the word “foot” is used to denote the extremity of the leg. But in
Karakalpak and Russian there is no exact equivalent for “foot”. The words “нога”,
“àÿ3” denote the whole leg including the foot.
Classification of the real world around us is learned with our first language
because we are used to the way in which our own language structures experience
but in the fact it is highly arbitary.
Ex. In Russian or in Karakalpak one word is used for the thing that tells the
time ñà2àò, часы; ñà2àò but in English we use two words “watch” and “clock”.
In English, Karakalpak some kinship terms do not reflect the difference
between male and female: cousin (á5ëå) . But in Russian: двоюрный брат,
двоюрная сестра.
In English: nephew, niece; in Russian, двоюрный брат, двоюрная сестра;
in Karakalpak: “жийен”, in
Karakalpak: “ñ67ðåòêåø”, in Russian: “художник”, in English : “artist”,
“painter”, “drawer”.
The word “воспитовать” can have different equivalents in English:
“educate, to raise, to bring up”.
Anything which can be said in one language can be translated more or less
into another. The correlated polysemantic words of different languages are not
coextensive.
Polysemantic words may denote very different types of objects but they are
correlated in one basic meaning.
Englishman uses the word “head” to denote the following:
head of person, head of a match, head of a bed, head of a table, head of a
coin, head of an organization, head of a cane (камыш).
But in Russian different words have to be used: голова,изголовье, сторона,
головка in Karakalpak бас, баслы3, 6ñòè, óøû.
Arussian or Karakalpak language learner having learnt first that the word
“head” is the English word which denotes a part of the body he will think that it can
be used in all the cases where the Russian word “голова” or “бас” in Karakalpak is
used. He will never think of using the word “head” in connection with a bed or a
coin.
Here are some other examples of difference:
In Russian: свекровь, теща
In English: mother in law
In Karakalpak: 31йин ене
In a number of cases the English word “new” stands for “новый”: новое платье (a
new dress). Новый год (New year). But there are some cases where in Russian we
can’t use the word новый; new potatoes - молодая картошка ,new bread - свежый
хлеб.
42
One Russian word may correspond to a number of English words: тонкая
книга - a thin book, тонкая ирония - subtle irony, тонкая талия - slim waist.
One word in one language may correspond to two or more words in
different languages; карикатура - cartoon, caracature.
One and the same Russian preposition may correspond to different
prepositions in English.
до 5 часов - till 5 o’clock
до войны - before the war
до угла - to the corner
The well-known Russian linguist Sherba said that it would be a mistake if
we supposed that the national systems of any two languages are identical.
Componential Analysis.
The term “componential analysis” was first used by W.Goodenough.
(“Componential Analysis and the Study of Meaning”, Language, 1956, 32, 1) and
F. Lounsbury (“ A Semantic Analysis of the Pawnee Kinship Usuage”, Language,
1956, 32,1).
Words have meanings and the smallest units of meaning are called sememes
or components of meaning. The word “ woman” has the following components of
meaning “human”, “female”, “ adult”.
girl
human
female
young
woman
human
female
adult
The component “young” distinguishes the word “girl” from “woman”.
human
human
girl
female
boy
male
young
young
Here the component “male” distinguishes the word “boy” from “girl”.
Componential analysis deals with meanings. Different meanings of
polysemantic words have different componential structure. Ex. the comporision of
two meanings of the word “boy”.
human
human
1. a male child
male
2. a male servant
male
young up to the
any age
age 17 or 18
Each part of speech has a distinguishing semantic feature. Nouns have the
component “substantiality” or “thingness” adjectives have “quality” and so on.
The semantic features of words may be classified into markers and
distinguishers. Semantic markers are semantic features which can be found (or are
present) also in the lexical meaning of other words. Distinguishers are semantic
features which are individual, which are not present in the lexical meaning of other
words.
countable noun
human
43
spinster
adult
female
who has never married
“countable noun” - is a marker, because it repersents a subclass within nouns and it
is a semantic feature which the word “spinster” has in common with all other
countable nouns (boy, table, flower, idea etc) “human” is a marker because it refers
the word “spinster” to noun denoting human beings.
“adult” is a marker because it is a subdivision of human beings into adult
and young.
“female” is a marker too because it shows a subclass of adult females as
woman, window, mother etc.
“Who has never married” - is a distinguisher because it differentiates the
meaning of the word from other words which have all other common semantic
features.
Componential analysis is also used in the investigation of the semantic
structure of synonyms. There is certain component of meaning which differs one
member from any other member of the same synonymic set.
thick
object
inanimate
stout
human
male
buxom
human
female
The adjective “thick has no the component “human”, “stout” does not
contain the semantic component “object” (a thick book, a stout man) and the
adjective “buxom” possesses the semantic component “female” which is not to be
found in either the English adjectives “thick” or “stout”.
The analysis into the components “animate”, “inanimate”, “object”, “male”
shows the difference in the meaning of synonyms.
The analysis helps us to find out the correspondence between the semantic
structure of correlated words or correlated meanings of words in different
languages.
The words “thick”, “stout”, “buxom” and the word “толстый” (семиз) are
not semantically identical becauce the Russian word “толстый” is used to describe
both humans and objects.
Ex. толстый человек, толстая книга.
The Karakalpak word “семиз” dose not cotain the semantic component
“male” and “femal”.
The components of the lexical or the grammatical meanings may be singled
out by the co-occurrence analysis.
Unfortunately the dictionaries do not always point out such semantic
components of words as “animate - inanimate”, “human-nonhuman”, “young-old”
etc. We know these components in their collocability with certain types of nouns.
The semantic components of the verb “to smoke” such as “age”, “human”
can be found when it is combined with certain nouns denoting these components.
44
The “female” or “male” component of the meaning of the noun “baby” can
be observed through the co-occurrence of it with the possessive pronouns “his” or
“her”.
The baby drank his milk
The baby drank her milk.
The4 componential analysis is widely used in modern linguistics. (Nida E.
Componential Analysis of Meaning. The Hague, 1975).
The words in different languages have their own semantic components.
Comparing the English verb “to go”, Karakalpak word “бары7” and Russian
“ходить”, “ездить” we can see that in
the English and Karakalpak words the way of movement is not shown. But in
Russian verbs холить and ездить this component is shown in them. We see here the
hidden component of meaning. The hidden component of meaning is a component
which can be revealed through the collocability of words.
It is impossible to say in Russian “ехать пешком”. R. S. Ginzburg says that
the hidden component of meaning of words is the linguistic property of the word. It
can be found with the help of co-occurrence analysis.
To study the hidden components of words is very important for language
teaching.
The Immediate Constituents Analysis. The Immediate Constituents (I. C.)
Analysis attepts to determine the ways in which the units are related to one another.
This method is based on a binary principle. In each stage of the prosedure we have
two components. At each stage these two components are broken into two smaller
meaningful elements. The analysis is ended when we arrive at the constituents
which are not divided further. These constituents are called “the ultimate
constituents”.
The aim of the I. C. analysis is to segment a set of lexical units into two
independent constituents. The meaning of yhe sentence, word group and the I. C.
segmentation are interdependent.
Ex. A fat teacher’s wife may mean that either the teacher is fat or his wife is
fat.
A fat teacher’s wife - means that the teacher is fat.
A fat/ teacher’s wife - means that his wife is fat.
A beautiful/ woman doctor - means that the doctor is a beautiful woman.A
beautiful woman/ doctor means that the doctor who treats woman is beautiful.
This analysis is widely used in lexicological investigations and in the study
of derivational structure of words and morphemic analysis of words.
Ex. denationalize (noyt to give a national right) may be first segmented into.
de/ nationalize because the morpheme “de -” can be found in a number of
other words: such as: deform, denature, denominate.
The remaining part “nationalize” can be broken into national/ ize because ““ize” can be found in such words as “organize”, “humanize”, “recognize”,
“standardize”. National - inti nation/ al as - “al” occurs in a number of words:
occupational, musical, critical.
So we have found de/ nation/ al / ize - 4 ultimate constituents
45
“friendliness” is divided into friendly/ ness (friendly- looking) because
“ness” can be found in such words as happiness, kindness, darkness, beautifulness
etc.
“friendly” is divided into friend/ ly becayse “friend” may occur in
“friendship”, “unfriendly” on the one hand “ly” can be seen in “wifely”, “brotherly”
on the other hand.
So we have found friend - ly - ness - 3 ultimate constituents. We draw
schemes of the morphemic analysis according to the I. C. method.
unreasonable
un reasonable
reason
able
denationalize
de
friendliness
nationalize
natoinal
nation
friendly ness
ize
friend
ly
al
This is the morphemic analysis
accrding to the I. C. method.
It should be pointed out that
this method is very useful to find out
the derivational srtucture of words too.
friend
li
ness
3
2
1
Ex. “ denationalize” has both a prefix “de -” and the suffix “-ize”.
In oder to know whether this word is a prefixal or a suffixal derivative we
use the I. C. analysis. We cannot divide this word into denational / ize because there
is no the word “denational” or “denation”. The only possible way of devision is de/
nationalize because there is the word “ nationalize”. Therefore we may say that this
word is a prefixal derivative. I. C. is also useful to define the compound words and
derivational compound words.
Ex. snow - covered can’t be divided into snow+cover+ed but snow +
covered. So it is a compound word because there is no “snow - cover” in the
dictionary.
“blue+eyed may be divided into (blue+eye)+ed because there is the word
“blue+eye” therefore it is a derivational compound word.
Distributional Analysis.
This method is widely used in lexicological analysis. Distribation is the
occurence of words relatively to other words. It is the position which words occupy
or may occur in the text.
The words have different lexical meanings in different distributional
patterns. In different distributional structures the
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word “ill” has different meaning: ill look, ill luck, ill health - плохой, fall ill, be ill больной.
The place of a morpheme is relative to other morphemes ex. singer-ersing is
impossible. A different pattern of arrangement of the same morphemes changes the
whole into the meaningless. If we have different distribution we have different
meanings!
Ex. to get to London, to get angry, to get rid of.
to take care of, to take of, to take in, take on, take place, take a taxi, take tea.
As was said above, different distribution of components of compound words
may change the meaning of the word. Ex. bird-cage and cage-bird, fruit-market,
market-fruit, life-boat, boat-life.
So the meaning of the word depends on its distribution. It should be pointed
out that the meaning of the word is dependent on what class of words it is combined
with.
Thus nouns may be subdivided into
N
animate
human
beings
ex
man, girl
inanimate
non-human
beings
ex
bird animal
concrete
ex
table, pen
abstract
ex
joy, idea
Ex. If we use after the verb “move” the nouns denoting inanimate objects
(move+ inanimate N) it has the meaning: двигать (ex. He moved a table).
But when it is followed by the noun denoting animate human being
(move+animate N) it has another meaning: He moved a man “он будил человека”.
The meaning of words also different if they are combined with different lexicosemantic groups. By lexico-semantic group we understand the group of words
joined together by a common concept or the words which have a common semantic
component. Ex. verbs denoting sence perception: to think, to imagine, to write, or
adjectives denoting colour: red, black, yellow etc.
Ex. blind + any N denoting a living being, animate слепой without the
power to see: a blind man, a blind woman, blind cat.
blind+N denoting inanimate objects or abstract concept may have different
meanings depending on the lexico- semantic group of the noun, it belongs to. So it
has the meaning “ безрассудный” (thoughtless) when it is combined with nouns
denoting emotions. Ex. blind love, blind fury.
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With nouns denoting written or typed signs it has the meaning “hard to see”,
ex. blind handwriting, blind type.
Distributional analysis is widely used in wordformation.
The analysis of the derivational pattern N+ish-adj. showa that the suffix“ish” is never combined with noun stems denoying time, space. It is impossible to
say hourish,mileish. Many adjectives in - “ish” are formed noun+stems denoting
living beings, ex. wolfish, boyish, girlish.
So the distribution may be viewed as the place of words in relation to other
words on the level of semantic classes and sub-classes. The distributional meanings
by co-occurrence may be extra-linguistic or linguistic components of meaning.
Good doctor - who treats well
Good mother - who takes care of her children well.
Here the meaning of the adjective “good” is different and it is the extralinguistic factors that account for the difference in meaning. The linguistic
components of distributional meaning can be found when we compare correlated
words in different languages.
Ex. In English the verb “to seize” may be combined with nouns denoting
different kinds of emotions (I was seized with joy, greif, etc.) but in Russian we
may say - на меня напало сомнения; but the collocations - напала радость,
надежда are impossible, so the Russian verb cannot be combined with nouns
denoting pleasurable emotions.
It must be said that the different semantic pecularities of the word may be
found in the distributional analysis. The verb “to giggle” refers to a type of laughter.
It means “to laugh in a nervous manner” but the analysis showed that “to giggle” is
often connected with the laugh of a woman (women giggle) man may giggle
drunkenly or nervously but not happily or politely. Different words make differnt
patterns.
Ex. to fell one’s way, to fell bad, to feel tired, to feel fo something.
What is a pattern? A pattern is combination of a word, a simbolic
representation of the class of words with which it may be combined.
Ex. see a boy, see a place, see a book.
On the bases of these words we can draw a pattern see+N. This is called a
distributional formular. The distributional formular is a symbolic representation.
ex. make+ (a) +N - make a coat, a machine
make+ (the)+N+V - make the machine go
make+(A)- make sure
make+ (a) + A + N make a good wife.
In each of these example the meaning of “make” is different.
Transformational Analysis. Sometimes the distributional analysis alone
doesn’t show whether the meaning is the same or different. In this case we use
transformational analysis. Transformation is any repatterning, remaking of a word
group.
Ex. to tear a curtain - the curtain has a tear
to cat a finger - the finger has a cat.
A paraphrase of a sentence in which some words are replaced by semantic
equivalent is a lexical transformation.
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Ex. This novel is a best-seller - (this novel is) a book that has one of the
biggest sales of the season. A lexical transformation keeps the meaning unchanged.
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE.
1. I. V. Arnold. The English Word. M, 1973. pp.274-290.
2. R. S. Ginzburg etal. A course in Modern English Lexicology. M, 1979.
3. E. M. Mednikova. Modern English Lexicology. M, 1964.
4. J. Buranov, A. Muminov. A Practical Course in English Lexicology.
M,1979.pp.143-152.
5. Дж. Буранов. Инглиз ва узбек тиллари 3èåñèé ãðàììàòèêàñè.
Тошкент. 1973.
6. А. М. Кузнецова. Структурно-семантические параметры в лексике.
М, 1980.